Dr Rachel E. Menzies is a practising clinical psychologist and the Director of the Menzies Anxiety Centre in Sydney’s Inner West.
Rachel completed her Honours degree in psychology at the University of Sydney, winning the Dick Thompson Thesis Prize for her work on death anxiety and its relationship with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Rachel then completed her Masters of Clinical Psychology and her PhD at the University of Sydney, and was awarded the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Award for Excellent PhD Thesis, for her research on death anxiety, its role in mental illness, and its treatment.
Rachel is also a member of the Australian Psychological Society, and is a Board-approved supervisor.
Rachel has published extensively on the causes of various disorders, including depression, OCD, panic disorder, illness anxiety, social anxiety, agoraphobia, generalised anxiety disorder and the specific phobias, as well as on gender differences in anxiety.
Rachel was featured in The Conversation Yearbook 2016, a collection of the top 1% of ‘standout articles from Australia’s top thinkers’. Rachel is the lead editor of the book Curing the Dread of Death: Theory, Research and Practice, published in 2018. In 2019, she released her second book: Tales from the Valley of Death: Reflections from Psychotherapy on the Fear of Death.
In 2021, Rachel released Mortals: How the Fear of Death Shaped Human Society, which was awarded the 2022 Nib People’s Choice Prize.
In 2022, she released two further books: Free Yourself from Death Anxiety: A CBT Self-Help Guide for a Fear of Death and Dying, and Existential Concerns and Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures: An Integrative Approach to Mental Health.
Rachel has delivered workshops on death anxiety and its relation to anxiety and mood disorders across 7 Australian cities. This 2019 national tour was hosted by the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AACBT).
In addition to her clinical work at the Menzies Anxiety Centre, Rachel works as a Research Fellow and guest lecturer at the University of Sydney, where she continues to conduct research into mental health conditions and their treatment.